Zombieland: Right Said Undead

Zom-Com is a bizarre sub-genre that shouldn't really exist. 99% of these films range from forgettable to terrible, with the 1% of quality film-making fueling the next four or five years of mediocrity and embarrassment. But, when that great film does come along, it deserves to be recognized, appreciated and scorned for inspiring terrible writers, directors and actors to attempt the same. Don't always try to grow up to be your hero, kids. That film is Zombieland, only the second good zombie comedy, and, by a 50% chance, the best.

Still less pestering than traffic wardens, amiright.

The most important thing when creating a comedy horror film is to do the exact opposite of what most traditional horror films do; create meaningful, thoughtful characters that make decisions you care about. This is especially important in a horror where the antagonist is the shuffling undead, who are traditionally sans personality. Unlike vampires, werewolves, psychotic dolls, clowns and the wrath of god, zombies can't have a horrific back story, or a dastardly plan, or a sensitive side. That's usually why it's in zombie films where suddenly the army are a bunch of perverted scumbags. While Zombieland doesn't exactly create heart wrenching origins for its main cast, everyone has a story to tell and it makes them easier to empathise with/laugh at. 

And my word, do the cast fill those roles well. Columbus, played by Jessie Eisenberg, suffers from the 'main character being least interesting in a world full of insane companions' trope, and should be a character worth little more than an eyeroll, but Eisenberg puts a positive, funny spin on it by using his natural awkwardness around these ridiculous fellow survivors. Woody Harrelson cements his place as one of the screens great badass' as Tallahassee, giving the character a genuine lovable-ness rarely found in other horrors and comedies alike. There was also the risk of Emma Stone as Wichita and Abigail Breslin as Little Rock falling into conventions of genre, and that does happen to an extent. Stone is your typical feisty love interest, though many of her lines are genuinely funny, making it easy to forgive any shortcuts taken in the writing. Breslin is what's known as a sassy-kid-because-broken-home character, which takes away slightly from her fantastic first appearance in the film, which I won't spoil. But what makes the performances great is not that they stray from typical character stereotypes. It's that they don't, and then some.

Just like the performances, the plot is not without its flaws. There are several occasions where characters do monumentally stupid things, and not in an ironic, forth wall breaking kind of way. There are some side plots that I really wish had been explored in greater detail, such as Tallahassee's life before the infection. And, although I am completely at fault as I should know what I'm getting into, at times it doesn't seem very genuine. Maybe I was spoiled by Shaun of the Dead, but that movie proved that it isn't that hard to have a linear, progressing story set in a zombie apocalypse. Occasionally, Zombieland feels like a sketch show, perhaps telling of the fact that it was initially a TV series.

Zombieland is a B-movie, there's no doubt about that. But it uses that in its favour to create a hilarious, engaging, exciting story about four lovable weirdos as they shoot things with guns a lot. On top of that, it has incredible celebrity cameos, a bit of romance, and adorable dogs And if you really need more than that, well then. You're just a worse version of Hitler, aren't you?